


Parallel

by seventhstar



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, F/M, Kattobingless!Yuuma, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-02
Updated: 2013-07-02
Packaged: 2017-12-16 21:42:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/866916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seventhstar/pseuds/seventhstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kattobingless!Yuuma AU. When Yuuma is assigned the terrifying (and attractive) Shark as his tag duel partner, he figures that nothing will come of it but another duel lost. Instead, he makes a friend, gains a magical card, and finally gains the courage to go after his childhood dream: being Duel Champion. Then Shark falls ill, a war for the Numbers starts in Heartland City, and Yuuma has to decide where he'll stand -- with the destiny his father wanted him to have, or with the people who've become his friends?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Parallel

“Honjou!” Kotori called. He looked up at her; she was waving at him from across the gym. “Are you going to kattobingu for us today?”

“Of course I am.” He smiled at her as widely as he could. Did she notice that he always did as she asked, and see it as an expression of his feelings? Or was it that Kotori was so pretty that guys were always doing things for her, and she was used to it?

The Emperor’s Key had changed his life in a lot of ways, but it had yet to get him much luck with girls.

He could remember the day clearly. He’d been alone at home, waiting. That was all he did those days; either he was out getting into trouble, or locked up at home waiting to get out of it. His mother worked herself to the bone, and his father had been gone long ago. 

So Honjo had been the one who answered the door when the package came. Packages never came for Honjo, and in his excitement he didn’t read the address, or check the name before tearing it open. Inside was a letter addressed “To my dearest son” and a golden key on a string.

Later Honjo would piece together the brown paper wrapping and realize that the package had been meant for someone else’s son, and was not from his deadbeat father. By then it didn’t matter, though. As far as he was concerned, the Emperor’s Key had come to him by fate, and guided him onto a better path. He’d given up hanging out with what his mother called ‘the wrong crowd’ and focused on his schoolwork and dueling. His kattobingu had become his life’s motto, and had won him friends and all the attention he’d craved.

Sometimes he felt bad for the kid who had never gotten his package. But how bad could the life of a kid with a father like that really be?

\----

“Yuuma!” Akari called out from her office as he walked by. No matter how quietly Yuuma crept into the house, Akari or Baa-chan always caught him. “Did you get your partner for the tag duel tournament?” 

Yuuma stopped in the open doorway. His sister had something different on every screen, and she was typing furiously, her fingers a blur. Though she was young, she was already one of the best journalists in Heartland City. If their parents were alive, Yuuma thought, she would be traveling all over the world, writing articles that changed the world. But they were dead, and Akari was trapped here because of him. She probably thought that Yuuma hadn’t heard the phone calls she received, from newspapers that wanted to hire her, or seen the bills that piled up endlessly in her inbox.

Yuuma had.

“I’m not entering.” He said quietly. He moved to escape to his room, but Akari whipped around to look at him.

“I entered you. Check your messages.” She said. Her expression softened at his frown. “It’ll be fun for you, Yuuma. You can invite them over here to practice.”

He shrugged, and went up the steps into the little bedroom he lived in. There was a loft in the corner that led to the treasure room, where his parent’s finds were stored and there was a hammock hung. Sometimes Yuuma went up there, to run his fingers over what remained of his father and mother’s lives, and to cry where Akari couldn’t hear him.

His D-Pad was lying on the pillow. There was a blinking light that meant new messages, and he scrolled through his inbox. There was one about grades, one reminder about the summer dress code, and a third message labeled “Heartland Academy Tag Duel Tournament!”

Yuuma tapped the message, hoping for someone in his class, like the class rep or Kotori. Both were kind, and were ordinary duelists who wouldn’t look down on him too much.

**Congratulations! Your partner for this year’s tag duel tournament will be: RYOGA KAMISHIRO**

“Shark.” Yuuma collapsed onto the bed. He was trembling, and he had to let the D-Pad fall back onto the bed.

It was unreal. How could he duel with Shark, the best duelist in the school? Shark had once gone to the Nationals and almost won. He was known as a bully and a delinquent, who never came to class and hung out in a gang. Yuuma had watched him duel a few times, and it was terrifying: his monsters were all sharks, and he showed no mercy.

(Yuuma had spent more time than he could admit, even to himself, thinking about Shark’s straight profile and his blue eyes and how intense his expression was when he was dueling. They were thoughts that he was ashamed of, though, and so he tried to forget that he had them.)

At that point he had to stop thinking, and close his eyes and count his breaths until he no longer felt like he was shattering and drowning, all at once. Calm, he told himself, calm. There’s no one here to laugh at you. But he was afraid, and the fear never went away, only ebbed enough for him to control himself.

_Don’t be stupid. There’s no way Shark will agree to duel with you, anyways._

Knowing that he’d be spared the humiliation was no comfort, though. Shark would duel with someone else, and he would maybe work up the courage to watch from the sidelines, and when it was over he would be alone.

\----

Ryoga only liked the school when it was empty. Without the prattle of the students and the scolding of the teachers, it looked dead. The lighting was almost eerie.

It made him think of the hospital, and not of Rio before the accident, when she had driven with him to school and snuck peppers into his lunch. Those memories were most sacred and painful, and he was afraid to think of them too much. Either they would make him happy, or they would make him helpless, and he couldn’t allow himself to be either. Not while his twin was in a coma and he was completely alone.

There was a storage closet on the second floor where Ryoga liked to work on his deck. It was dim, and deserted, and out of the narrow window he could just see the sea if he strained. Normally he sat on the floor against the dusty shelves and laid his cards out beside his legs.

Today the closet was occupied.

_He’s crying,_ Ryoga thought, disgusted, and made to close the door. But the kid in the corner looked up, and his face, with its red eyes and tense mouth, was familiar. He was his assigned partner for the tag team duel, whatever his name was – _Yuya? Yuku?_

The tag team duel wasn’t usually mandatory, but in his case, because of his attendance, the administration had decided to make an exception. It was pointless to him, there was no one in the school who could match him, but it couldn’t be completely worthless to see if his partner was going to be any help.

“It’s Tsukumi, isn’t it?”

No answer. Ryoga scowled, and that made the kid duck his head down again.

“Well? Don’t just sit there!”

“Tsukumo,” came a muffled voice, from the vicinity of his knees. “Yuuma Tsukumo.”

He waited, hoping Yuuma would continue the conversation down the obvious path, but he stayed silent and folded up, probably hoping Ryoga would go away. He had that effect on people, although they weren’t normally in the fetal position until after he’d defeated them.

_What a waste of my time._ Ryoga turned around – there was probably an abandoned classroom around, or one that he could arrange to be abandoned by glaring – and heard Yuuma’s voice again. It was still soft, but no longer muffled, so at least he’d stopped sobbing into his knees.

“Um…if you want…you can find another partner…”

“I don’t care.” He just needed to attend the tournament.

“But…I don’t mind…”

“There aren’t two duelists in our school I can’t defeat on my own. I don't care who my partner is.”

“But…”

“But what?” Ryoga spun around. Yuuma immediately looked away.

He didn’t answer his question, and so Ryoga walked over to him, into the closet, and knelt down so that he was at eye level.

Had it occurred to Yuuma that if he picked another partner they’d be opponents, not allies? That even if he wanted to switch Ryoga wasn’t going to risk failing an assignment that only required him to show up and duel?

Ryoga opened his mouth to explain to Yuuma that it was pointless what he did, because Ryoga would win all their duels anyways, and anyways the school didn’t let them switch, when the door behind them slammed shut. There was a deafening click that he recognized as the lock turning.

“Fuck.”

\---

The closet was suddenly tiny.

Yuuma could almost feel Shark’s breath on him; if he looked up he could see that Shark’s eyes were very blue, and also that he looked like he might actually bite. He was still waiting for an answer, and Yuuma wanted to speak. But the fear choked him, and his throat closed up, and to his humiliation he had to let his head fall between his knees and gasp.

“I – are you okay?”

_No,_ Yuuma thought wildly, in between labored, loud breaths. _Please don’t laugh – please don’t leave – I’m scared._

“Look,” Shark began. He sounded like he was talking through gritted teeth. “I just came here to see if your deck was any good.”

It was a good deck. It had been his father’s. It was Yuuma that was the problem.

Yuuma squeezed his eyes shut, feeling hot tears rush into his eyes, and then Shark touched him.

“Ah!”

Shark’s hand was resting on his back. It was warm, and Yuuma had noticed earlier that his fingers were long and white, and the thought of Shark trying to make him feel better was so thrilling that Yuuma forgot about dueling entirely for a moment. He counted to ten, then to twenty, and then turned his head so that he could look Shark in the face.

“It’s pointless.” He murmured. “I’m no good.”

“And I told you, it doesn’t matter if you are or not.”

“I can’t be in a tournament! I’ll have to duel all the time and I’m too scared and…”

“Scared of what? Losing?”

Yuuma nodded.

Shark didn’t say anything. He pulled his hand away. Maybe now he would agree to find a new partner, or at least to leave Yuuma alone. The thought should have been a relief, but it left him a little hollow. This tournament would probably be the only excuse he would ever have to spend time with Shark, and he couldn’t even work up the courage to take advantage of it.

“…me, too.”


End file.
